Carl Edvard Marius Levy
Encyclopedia
Professor, Dr. Med. Carl Edvard Marius Levy (sometimes spelled "Carl Eduard Marius Levy" or in foreign literature "Karl Edouard Marius Levy", September 10, 1808 – December 30, 1865) was professor and head of the Danish
Maternity institution in Copenhagen
(Fødsels- og Plejestiftelsen
).
Levy graduated 1831 from Copenhagen University in Medicine and surgery. Received the university gold medal in 1830. Licentiat (PhD) degree in 1832. Doctorate degree in 1833. He then embarked on a three-year scientific journey which took him to France, Italy and England. Professor extraordinarius in obstetrics
in 1841, professor ordinarius in 1850.
He founded the monthly medical journal: Hospitals-Meddelelser
. He also founded the Doctor's Association Den Almindelige Danske Lægeforening in 1857, which he headed until 1859. He suffered and eventually died from a heart defect.
He was born Jewish but converted to Christianity in 1840-1841 in order to pursue an academic career.
According to his biography, rampant epidemics of childbed fever at the Copenhagen maternity institution tested his ingenuity and determination. Repeated closures of the institution and the creation of interim locales proved fruitless. After a study tour to England and Ireland in 1846 he completely rebuilt and reformed the maternity institution, however with unsatisfactory results.
Professor Carl Braun in Vienna said about the Copenhagen hospital, that "because this is the most appropriate and noteworthy newly constructed maternity hospital, in which every step has been taken to halt puerperal fever epidemics, we allow ourselves to estimate that in this new building under Levy's direction no puerperal fever epidemics will occur."
Professor Levy was an outspoken critic of Ignaz Semmelweis
' ideas, that childbed fever was an iatrogenic disease. Semmelweis theorized that decaying matter on the hands of doctors, who had recently conducted autopsies, was brought into contact with the genitials of birthgiving women during the medical examinations at the maternity clinic. Semmelweis proposed a radical hand washing theory using chlorinated lime, now a known desinfectant, and demonstrated dramatic reductions in mortality rates. In a rather infamous concluding remark, Professor Levy writes:
The above translation is rather benign compared to the punch in the original Danish quote. For more of his criticism, see Semmelweis' ideas rejected as unscientific.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
Maternity institution in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
(Fødsels- og Plejestiftelsen
Fødsels- og Plejestiftelsen
Fødsels- og Plejestiftelsen is a Danish maternity institution which was founded by Queen Juliane Marie on April 8, 1785....
).
Levy graduated 1831 from Copenhagen University in Medicine and surgery. Received the university gold medal in 1830. Licentiat (PhD) degree in 1832. Doctorate degree in 1833. He then embarked on a three-year scientific journey which took him to France, Italy and England. Professor extraordinarius in obstetrics
Obstetrics
Obstetrics is the medical specialty dealing with the care of all women's reproductive tracts and their children during pregnancy , childbirth and the postnatal period...
in 1841, professor ordinarius in 1850.
He founded the monthly medical journal: Hospitals-Meddelelser
Hospitals-Meddelelser
Hospitals-Meddelelser was a Danish medical journal founded by Carl Edvard Marius Levy and published from 1848 to 1856. Søren Eskildsen Larsen, the chief surgeon at Almindelig Hospital, was co-editor from 1848 to 1853....
. He also founded the Doctor's Association Den Almindelige Danske Lægeforening in 1857, which he headed until 1859. He suffered and eventually died from a heart defect.
He was born Jewish but converted to Christianity in 1840-1841 in order to pursue an academic career.
According to his biography, rampant epidemics of childbed fever at the Copenhagen maternity institution tested his ingenuity and determination. Repeated closures of the institution and the creation of interim locales proved fruitless. After a study tour to England and Ireland in 1846 he completely rebuilt and reformed the maternity institution, however with unsatisfactory results.
Professor Carl Braun in Vienna said about the Copenhagen hospital, that "because this is the most appropriate and noteworthy newly constructed maternity hospital, in which every step has been taken to halt puerperal fever epidemics, we allow ourselves to estimate that in this new building under Levy's direction no puerperal fever epidemics will occur."
Professor Levy was an outspoken critic of Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "savior of mothers", Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics...
' ideas, that childbed fever was an iatrogenic disease. Semmelweis theorized that decaying matter on the hands of doctors, who had recently conducted autopsies, was brought into contact with the genitials of birthgiving women during the medical examinations at the maternity clinic. Semmelweis proposed a radical hand washing theory using chlorinated lime, now a known desinfectant, and demonstrated dramatic reductions in mortality rates. In a rather infamous concluding remark, Professor Levy writes:
These are my impressions of Dr. Semmelweis's experiences; for these reasons I must judge provisionally that his opinions are not clear enough and his findings not exact enough to qualify as scientifically founded.
The above translation is rather benign compared to the punch in the original Danish quote. For more of his criticism, see Semmelweis' ideas rejected as unscientific.
See also
- Two-page obituary published in Illustreret Tidende, Årgang 7, Nr. 328, 07/01-1866 from which the picture is sourced. . Pdf versions of pages available here, and here
- Entry in the Danish biography (1887–1905) Dansk biografisk lexikon (in Danish). Available online. Levy's biography is in Volume X, page 255 and onwards, see here and onwards.
- There is an article on his life and achievements in the Swedish Wikipedia (in Swedish). http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Edvard_Marius_Levy. The Swedish wiki entry is based on the Danish biography, with wiki-links to related persons.